Instant Video Gratification for K–12 Education
Jam-packed with standards-based video and other content, abounding in classroom applications and accessible around the clock, Learn360 earns a complete satisfaction rating from Idaho district
Once upon a time in schools everywhere, teachers would announce to their classes that they would be watching a film that day. A projector would be wheeled in, the lights would come down, the film strip would begin spinning on its reels, cartoon characters would elucidate moments in history or Julius Sumner Miller would explicate physics—and while many students learned a great deal, some students invariably tuned out. Later, of course, would come Beta and VHS cassettes and DVDs. The setup was quicker, but the results were not necessarily better.
“Yes, I definitely remember those films,” says David Badger, media specialist and librarian at Burley High School in south-central Idaho and 26-year teaching veteran. The disadvantages and deficiencies of outdated technologies keep him “continually on the lookout for new resources to enrich [the district’s] curriculum.”
Dynamic Media-On-Demand
That vigilance led him to Learn360, a media-on-demand service for K– 12. Badger first learned of the service at an educational technology conference while talking shop with a counterpart of his from nearby Twin Falls School District. Badger immediately looked into Learn360. With a library of over 73,000 streaming video and audio files, plus support materials, correlated to state standards and 21st-century learning initiatives, he was duly impressed. After an informative webinar with Kylie McGee, who manages ENA’s Consortium Program that offers educational resources at specially negotiated volume prices, and realizing how easy and intuitive Learn360 was to use, how much less expensive it was than competing services, and that teachers and students could access the service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Badger was convinced.
About that time, a media specialist from another district visited Burley High School. When she saw the aging collection of videos in the media library, she said, “There’s a better way.” Badger replied, “I know. It’s Learn360. I’m ordering subscriptions for both our teachers and our students.”
Last fall Badger trained all of the high school’s teachers on how to integrate Learn360 into the classroom. Taking advantage of Learn360’s own training videos accessible at the website, Badger found that the teachers caught on quickly and most of them put Learn360 to use in their classrooms immediately. When classes come to the library for research projects, Badger provides an orientation for students on using the library’s various resources. It was a cinch to add Learn360 to his presentation.
An Engaging Tool That’s Easy-To-Use and Culturally Appropriate
“A lot of the teachers think Learn360 is great,” explains Badger. “And the students always respond well to tools that they’re familiar with. A dynamic, highly visual online tool like Learn360, it’s part of this generation’s culture. They enjoy it, they pay attention to it and are engaged by it.”
Badger says that Learn360 can be implemented with great success in any classroom, since the vast library of top-quality content covers all grade levels and subject areas. There are videos, clips, articles, audio files, images, newsreels and speeches from producers and creators such as PBS, the History and A&E television networks, Encyclopedia Britannica, Reading Rainbow and more. Badgers adds that Learn360 is the ideal resource for teaching Character Development, a course of curriculum that is mandatory for every high school student in his district, and for senior projects. Every Burley High School senior must create a senior project that includes a paper, a portfolio, a presentation and a final product, activity or event.
Applicable to Any Grade Level and Subject Area
“The way Learn360 can complement the Character Development curriculum,” says Badger, “that was a selling point for me from the very beginning. And the way Learn360 can be deployed to a wide variety of abilities without posing any problems to the students using it, that’s big.”
He continues: “One of the problems with analog systems is that it’s difficult to have them cued up and ready for every class. And when the video isn’t at your fingertips and isn’t precisely relevant, videos become a time filler instead of a powerful teaching tool. Digital video has changed all of that because a teacher can access just the right clip without rewinding, searching or showing an entire video just to arrive at the one point they want to make. That combined with the impact that video can make with visual learners makes Learn360 a very powerful tool indeed.”
Requires No Shelf Space, Costs Are Predictable and Content Is Continually Updated
Badger is pleased that the school’s students and teachers have found Learn360 so valuable to their teaching and learning. It’s the best of all possible affirmations of his initial instinct to purchase Learn360. Plus, he says, there are other very practical benefits to schools. “Learn360 requires no shelf space. There’s a predictable cost. They constantly update their content so that I don’t have to. With Learn360, I just don’t need to buy much unless there’s a very special circumstance.”
